1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to enclosed machines for preparing food commercially in small quantities and, more particularly, relates to heatable containers in such machines.
Many kinds of sellers of prepared foods at retail are faced with providing such food in quantities small enough for a single serving. Various kinds of stand-alone food preparation machines have been developed for providing prepared food in single serving quantities.
Among the kinds of these machines which have been developed is a food preparation machine for the deep-fat frying of food in quantities for one, or a few, servings. Such machines can be used to prepare french-fried potatoes, fish pieces, chicken pieces or the like.
A machine for doing this is shown in FIG. 1. There, two baskets, 10, are shown which can be filled with such kinds of food as are desired to have fried in cooking oil. A motorized transport mechanism can be activated to lower baskets 10 into a container or vat, 11, of cooking oil. Most of the motor parts for the transport mechanism, the motor control circuitry, and other control circuitry, can be mounted and contained in a box, 12, shown in the interior of the machine in FIG. 1. Controls for operating the machine can extend through one of the panels enclosing the machine on the right-hand side thereof. Shown above these controls is a fire extinguisher provided as a safety measure and directed into the interior of the enclosure formed by the outer panels of the machine.
During operation, some oil is splattered about and, in any event, the oil ages during use, and so, certain residues accumulate on container 11. This necessitates the changing of the oil in, and the cleaning of, container 11.
Heretofore, the containers used as a container 11 were operated with a molded-in heating element affixed thereto. During cleaning operations where the use of a solvent cleaner was resorted to, as is necessary after awhile, the solvent in many instances gets into the heating elements inside the molding in the casting. This leads to either shorting out the heating elements, or the burning out of them, necessitating discarding of the entire container with the failed heater. Furthermore, various other components in such configuration were mounted directly to the container necessitating a time consuming and inconvenient effort to remove them before cleaning or otherwise risk their damage also in the cleaning process. An arrangement for providing heaters and other components would be desirable where they could all be removed to permit cleaning of the container alone.